Pacific Federal Angler Affiliation for Billfish (PacFAAB)

This site is the result of recommendations made by southern California billfish anglers at a workshop held at the Balboa Angling Club of Southern California, Newport Beach California, August 11, 1999. Its purpose is to facilitate information exchange to improve stock assessments of Pacific billfish by increasing baseline data on movements, growth, reproduction, and tagging mortality through a research collaboration between Pacific recreational billfish anglers, Mexican fishery scientists, and the Southwest Fisheries Science Center (SWFSC).

Participants in the Pacific Federal Angler Affiliation for Billfish (PacFAAB) workshop decided that the best way to meet the information needs of the future was to expand on the SWFSC's existing Billfish Tagging Program and Angler Survey. Thus the enhanced program would encourage billfish anglers to tag and release billfish (swordfish, striped marlin, blue marlin, and sailfish) as before, but in a way that will greatly increase the kinds and quality of scientific information derived from their fishing trips. Collaborative projects to improve information needed for stock assessments included the means to acquire specific life history data, trends in abundance, movement patterns, stock boundaries, and measures of physical condition at time of release. Recommendations for implementing those projects in both the short and long term were identified and published in a workshop report entitled "Pacific Federal Angler Affiliation for Billfish - PacFAAB" in March 2000. The PacFAAB report included a draft research plan to expand and enhance research collaboration to improve the information needed for fishery management.

Seven short-term action items identified would expand the current level of cooperation using existing resources and serve to catalyze the development of a more complete future program. Implementation of several elements of the draft PacFAAB Plan have already shown great promise while the more costly elements await additional resources.